Chapter 19

There was an awkward silence that filled the room in Gideon's new home. Kaiden's eyes were staring straight back at the man in front of him. Stephen was glaring at Kaiden while Gideon was awkwardly shifting in his seat.

"To what do I owe the pleasure of his highness visiting this servant's humble home?" Stephen sarcastically, not even bothering to hide his resentment.

"I am merely visiting an old friend who happened to be under your care" Kaiden smiled but the smile did not reach his eyes at all.

Gideon glanced back and forth between the two and let out a few coughs to catch their attention. The first cough was ignored so he coughed louder and Kaiden was the first one to break from the staring contest.

"Our place is still a mess, unfit for his highness! We can just talk another day" Gideon tried to reason out and Kaiden shook his head.

"Well I can help you unpack your things"

"Kaiden please" Gideon started to whisper hoping he'd get the idea.

"Gideon I insist" Kaiden whispered back.

The two kept bickering back and forth on why Kaiden wanted to help and why he shouldn't. Kaiden was trying to piss Stephen off more all the while spending more time getting to know his old friend once again. But the man could no longer tolerate these two children whispering in front of him.

"THIS SERVANT CAN NOT HAVE THE CROWN PRINCE DO MY WORK FOR ME"

"And the servant cannot order this crown prince around"

The room felt like it dropped to a few degrees and there was killing intent between the two men. Gideon immediately stands up and puts himself in the middle of the two.

"Uncle Steph, If you don't want our prince to help clean up then I'll just tag along with him somewhere"

"No!" Stephen hates this idea even more. To leave Gideon alone with Kaiden is like handing a bunny to a fox.

"Then I'll just help you out" 

Kaiden stood up from his seat and walked to a box that was labeled "Attic". Carrying it he started to walk out and Gideon had to rush after Kaiden. Stephen was left alone in the living room and he immediately held the bridge of his nose out of stress.

"Kaiden put those down. I'll put them up in the attic"

"I'm already carrying them, the most you can do is lead me there"

"There's no point in arguing with you" 

Gideon gave in again and led him to the area that had the door to the attic. He tried reaching for the string to pull down the Ladder but the string wouldn't fall like usual. He had to jump to grab the string and pull it down. The moment he turned around, he caught Kaiden trying to hold in his laughter. He frowned and grabbed the box from Kaiden to put it up in the attic himself.

"Hey I told you I was the one who will put those away" Kaiden stopped laughing and Gideon got a little fed up.

"Well I didn't want you to help out-" 

His foot slipped and felt like he was falling until suddenly he wasn't anymore?

He opened his eyes and saw that Kaiden had caught him and the box that went flying was just floating in midair slowly it floated up into the attic and the door closed.

"You ok?" 

Kaiden was still holding Gideon by the waist, their faces were close to each other. Both of their hearts were beating fast. Gideon immediately composed himself and moved away from Kaiden.

"Yeah, I'm alright!" His face was red due to the embarrassment he just had received.

"Let me see your foot"

"No no it's not hurt" It was. "and even if it was, I'll just heal it myself"

There was silence between the two of them again and Gideon murmured something. Kaiden blinked in confusion and walked closer.

"Did you say something?"

Gideon frowned "I said thank you!" 

He just felt so flustered about the situation because of how stupid it was. How did he even slip, what kind of cliché novel was he in? It dawned on him for a moment and his expression became even worse upon remembering that he indeed transmigrated into a cliché novel.

Kaiden felt a little helpless at Gideon since he didn't know how to respond to someone who said "Thank you" with an expression that looked like he stepped on shit.

"No Worries, Is there anything else you need help with?"

Gideon is not going to go through what had happened earlier so he gave up and said that he just needed to sort out his things in his room while the rest will be handled by Stephen and him. That's one way of preventing a Royal Murder Crime Scene from happening in this house.

Kaiden, on the other hand, felt a little nervous but at the same time excited.

'Calm down Kaiden, Calm down Kaiden' he internally chanted to himself as Gideon led him to his room.

"It's still a mess, I mostly need you to help me put away the things inside that box on that shelf while I assemble my desk"

Gideon pointed to a box and a bookshelf near it. It was an easy job and Kaiden didn't say anything else and went ahead to open the box. The box had some frames, knick-knacks, and books in it. Upon taking out the frames, it was a diploma and other school-related certificates. The name of the school looked like it was a community college and apparently, Gideon took up Hotel and Restaurant Management.

"You went to a community college?"

"Why didn't you go to Imperial College instead? Even if you had terrible grades, I'm sure with Theodora's position under Kassandra you would be able to enroll"

"Well, it's simply because I was trying to avoid" Gideon stops mid-sentence upon realizing what he was about to say.

"To avoid me. Don't worry, I thought about it and it does make sense why you avoided me. To be honest maybe if I was allowed to speak with you then maybe you didn't have to go through all that"

Gideon was a little quiet. Indeed he would have been able to explain it properly if he was given the opportunity back then. But everything was being rushed to the point he was panicking as well. He placed his focus back on assembling the desk because of how unsure he was about what to answer. Kaiden seemed to pick up that he didn't want to push this topic so he went ahead to put the items the way he would in his room.

"What else do you need help with?"

Gideon was already done with setting up his desk. He didn't have a desktop since he uses a laptop that he saved up from his "salary" working in Stephen's Bakeshop. Another thing is that he didn't have that much stuff due to the fact he already gotten used to living a minimalist esc lifestyle in his previous life. He would spoil his sister with everything and only buy the necessities for himself.

"That's about everything. I can't have you put away Stephen and Theodora's stuff or else we'll just go over the same situation earlier"

"I'm well aware of that, then can we just talk like old times?"

"Oh um, sure? You can sit anywhere you want"

The sudden request made it feel awkward for Gideon. Kaiden took a seat on his office chair while he sat on his bed. He wasn't sure what to talk about with him.

'He's close to Alice's age and you technically read most of his life in the past you can do this Gideon'

"So how's life going for you so far?" Gideon started with small talk. This way he can maybe find a topic out of it.

"Not much, I didn't know that you had Azazel bound to an oath so it almost killed him"

Gideon's eyes widened at the sudden news. Usually, Amias would come to visit him in Azazel's place to notify or check on him but this was during the time when their oath was still active. Now that it was broken, he had no news about Azazel after it was broken. He never really understood the consequences of breaking an oath but now he does.

"Is he alright?!" 

Even if Gideon's character was a pawn in this novel's chess game, the time he spent in this world made him attached to the characters. On the other hand, however, Seeing Gideon worry about the very man that got them separated made Kaiden furious. He kept his expression neutral and his powers in check to prevent another misunderstanding.

"He's fine. The King was there to help him and I healed him as well. You're so worried, are you two close?" He raised an eyebrow at Gideon and Gideon didn't know how to react.

"I just feel like it's my fault that's why I'm worried"

"He willingly swore an oath. It's his fault for not fulfilling the terms" 

This conversation was getting a little bit negative and Gideon was not liking it one bit. But it did say a lot about how Kaiden's character is still similar to the original novel. Even though he was no longer a cannon fodder with how many encounters he had with the Protagonist and the supporting characters, there was no guarantee that he was no longer a villain.

'Even if the novel forces me, I won't let all of my efforts so far go in vain'